Initially, the news about Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park closing after the NHRA’s 2023 visit there to Chandler, Ariz., sounded terrible.

The mere fact the NHRA delivered it in a press release at 11:58 p.m. Pacific Time Friday (2:58 a.m. Eastern Time Saturday) smacks of damage-control mentality. It’s an old public-relations ploy: “Let’s hope nobody sees it or at least let’s mitigate the backlash.” Granted, we have no background information or any logical explanation why the timing is so suspicious, but it doesn’t matter, really.

The point is the NHRA has lost another venue. By that last suburban Phoenix race, five racetracks will have dropped off the circuit in six years. For various reasons, it permanently lost dragstrips at Englishtown, N.J., in 2018; Joliet, Ill., in 2020; and Commerce, Ga. (near Atlanta) this year. Houston is hosting its final race late next month, and by the end of the 2023 campaign, Phoenix (which has been a regular stop since 1985) will have closed its gates.

There was a time when Australia was almost like a second home to me.

I learned certain words don't have the same meaning here in the United States as it does there. 

For instance, when a female says she took off her thong and whacked a spider, one should not get overly concerned. 

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Most drag racing fans who are familiar with my story, know that I worked as a photographer for many years before my own racing career finally got underway in 1986. Once I started racing, I put away my cameras and focused (pun intended) solely on my career. All of my past work was no longer important to me. But even though I no longer cared about my past, I did manage to lug around 11 big plastic bins of negatives and transparencies from the mid eighties all over the country. They've been stored in numerous storage units, moved from Atlanta to Indy back in 1994, stacked up in the not-so-dry 1932 era basement of my first house, and most recently, stored in the garage next to all of my and my family's cycling and ski equipment out here in Oregon. How I kept them, and why, I am not sure, but, boy, am I glad I did. I kept all of my camera equipment too, for the most part, although I did sell my 500mm lens to noted photographer and fellow Super Stock Magazine contributor Francis Butler after we had blown something up in the funny car in 1990. I last did a professional shoot (for WInston) in 1989 to raise some quick money when Gary Evans and I formed our own team, Bazemore Evans Racing. I next shot our car in 1996 for the cover of National Dragster. That was it until 2005 when my son Dashiell was born. In 15 years, I had picked up a camera exactly one time.

Somewhere I heard that life is a test

I been through the worst but I still give my best

God made my mold different from the rest

Then he broke that mold so I know I'm blessed - Aloe Blacc

I've heard many times in my life, "That which does not kill you only makes you stronger.

Today is the start of a new year, a new resolution. Many will use January 1 as the launching date of a new approach to life or whatever they seek for self or professional improvement.

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The fences still remain, as do dilapidated buildings, a reminder that a once proud drag strip occupied the land.

To the drag racing community, Spartanburg Dragway was just another drag strip that fell victim to a new neighborhood where the neighbors created a community around the strip and then realized that drag strips are loud.

Spartanburg Dragway wasn’t purchased for a real estate investment. It was purchased to be silenced.

When I look back at my first Countdown the biggest lesson I learned was you can’t count points. The points jockey and move so much during the Countdown that you just really need to focus on taking care of your business. At the end of the day if you don’t take care of what you have to do nothing else matters. I really enjoyed being in championship contention and what a privilege it was to be competing against so many great teams like Steve Torrence, Brittany Force and Mike Salinas. I learned you have to take care of your own business and let the points take care of themselves.Louis we really have no margin for error now. We must be on our “A” game over these last four races. 

That awesome recent display of power and acceleration exhibited by Bob Tasca, Jr in his all-electric Mustang Cobra Jet 1400E made the race promoter in me stop to think about what’s ahead for drag racing and us old gear heads.

My initial reaction was, “Wow! That’s really cool.” An 8.12 ET at nearly 180 MPH. And it looks like a real Mustang! But will it play in Peoria? Will fans really buy into electric car racing? What’s the future for drag strip promoters and the drag racing industry?

This prompted me to do some serious thinking about it. My entire adult life, my legacy, and my fortune were all about this truly visceral sport we call drag racing from my first exposure to it in the mid-1950s.

I realized quickly that drag racing is one of the most sensory experiences one can encounter — the sound, the smell, the shaking of the earth.

Paul Lee doesn't consider himself a journalist. He's a Funny Car racer and owns the very successful McLeod clutches product line. In the days following the Summit NHRA Nationals, Lee felt inspired and the only way to get his point across was to put his fingers to the keyboard and begin typing. He writes from the standpoint of a racer, aftermarket manufacturer, and a race fan all in one. We are sure he speaks for a large contingent of fans who believe they witnessed the future of the sport on Sunday in Norwalk, Ohio. 

Tod Mack, a former owner of Maryland international Dragway, had his fingerprint on many promotions and innovations from the heralded facility located in Budds Creek, Md.

Mack, whose promotional home runs included the US Pro Stock Open, Mountain Motor Nationals, and The Wild Bunch, solidified his name in the ranks of significant drag racing contributors.

Mack was the first to use a pairings ladder based on qualifying times for the nitro cars when he ran the NASCAR Drag Race Division in the 1960s. Tod and Larry, along with Lex Dudas and Mike Lewis, created the ET Bracket Finals program in the early 1970s, which the group finally turned over to NHRA after a few years. MIR was the winner of the Inaugural event held at York US 30 Dragway. All in all, Tod Mack owned or operated six tracks over his career, and MIR fans benefited from his decades of experience.